Sicilian New Year

Summary

Snow gathered on Etna on the first of January makes wonderful granita - the perfect antidote to any New Year Day's hangover.

hidden europe 24 / Snippet / By hidden europe

It is a Sicilian tradition to drive on New Year's Day on the road that zigzags up the side of Mount Etna. No matter that red road signs suggest the road is already closed for the winter. Capodanno, the first day of the new year, is a chance for a little Sicilian madness, and crowds spill out from towns and villages around the golfo di Catánia to drive on crowded roads up towards the huge volcano.

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Editorial hidden europe 24
Editorial

By hidden europe

Welcome to hidden europe 24. This issue of hidden europe travel magazine contains articles on Poznan's main square, the city of Angouleme, Allianoi on Turkey's Aegean coast and the search for Franklin's lost expedition.

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Poznan blues
Feature

By Nicky Gardner

Europe's city squares are being radically reshaped by the arrival of mass tourism. Thus far, Poznan's beautiful central square has resisted the pressure for change. It remains essentially a place for the locals. But change is surely in the offing.

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Angouleme - murs peints
Feature

By Rudolf Abraham

The city of Angoulême in the Charente valley is home to one of France's most distinctive art form: the bande dessinée or comic strip. Guest contributor Rudolf Abraham introduces us to this extraordinary city.

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The nymph's call to Allianoi
Feature

By Üstün Bilgen-Reinart

Progress always comes at a price. Not far from Turkey's Aegean coast the beautiful ruins at Allianoi are about to be flooded. Local horticulturalists demand more water for their tomato crops. But the defenders of Allianoi are not giving in easily. Üstün Bilgen-Reinart reports from Turkey.

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The search for Franklin
Feature

By Nicky Gardner

About twenty clairvoyants, mediums and spiritualists were closely involved in the search for Franklin's lost expedition. The ghostly tale of Louisa Coppin is just one part of this improbable story.

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Form and function: Dessau
Special spaces

By Nicky Gardner

The Dessau Bauhaus was the creative focus for a galaxy of talented artists, architects and designers, among them Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Mies van der Rohe. We explore the small town of Dessau in eastern Germany.

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East is East: Oleg's story
People

By Nicky Gardner

About ten years ago, significant numbers of poor people from Estonia were persuaded to travel to Switzerland to take part in medical trials. One of them was Oleg.

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A first class surprise
Railscan

By Nicky Gardner

The view from the carriage window may be identical in first class, but sometimes it makes good economic sense to travel in style. There are many instances in rail journeys across Europe where first class travel may actually be cheaper than second class.

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Colour codes: a child's meditation
Moments

By Nicky Gardner

Foreignness is often deliciously exotic. In an unusual departure from the regular hidden europe style, we place ourselves in the position of a child pondering worlds beyond the home village.

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Of turrets and towers
Sights

By Nicky Gardner

From radio towers in Moscow, to the ancient pigeon towers of Isfahan, towers are things to be celebrated and explored. We look at some of Europe's finest, and take a close look at towers along the route of the Great Western Railway from London to Penzance.

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Lonely Planet's Europe

We learnt from 'The Europe Book' that Frenchmen no longer were berets, that Liechtenstein is Europe's largest exporter of dentures and that the sugar cube was invented in the former Czechoslovakia. We review Lonely Planet's latest coffee table offering.

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Spitting distance from the Baltic
Routes

By Nicky Gardner

The Curonian Spit is a delicate concave arch, a narrow thread of land that divides the Baltic from the Courland Lagoon. We travel from Lithuania into Russia through one of Europe's most intriguing landscapes.

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A Baha'i pioneer
Snippet

By hidden europe

A short tribute to Brigitte Hasselblatt, the spiritual mother of both the Shetland and the Estonian Baha'i communities.

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A Polish curiosity
Snippet

By hidden europe

To walk through the door of the church is to leave modern Poland and enter a space suffused with exotic incense and the rich iconography of European Orthodoxy. A note on the Polish Orthodox church in Jelenia Góra.

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Sicilian New Year
Snippet

By hidden europe

Snow gathered on Etna on the first of January makes wonderful granita - the perfect antidote to any New Year Day's hangover.

Read on
Slovakia's new currency
Snippet

By hidden europe

Slovakia adopts the euro and along the way reshapes its identity. Icons of western and secular modernity replace a more eastern demeanour.

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Latin lover
Snippet

By hidden europe

Do you think Latin is a dead language? We present the case to the contrary.

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Preview hidden europe 25
Preview

By hidden europe

a look ahead at hidden europe 25

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hidden europe 24

Sicilian New Year

Summary

Editorial

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Special spaces

People

Railscan

Moments

Sights

Routes

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Preview

The lure of Barbizon: European art colonies in the 19th century

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From Poland to Piedmont: in search of slow food